The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2009) - Reviews

This is one of those strange little shows that to me; is a gem. If you start watching it, it might be rather strange because of the order that is given to you. The first episode 00 is not really the first. It’s the episode that the group makes later on in the show. A lot of shows are like that, in the wrong order. When it aired is a nonlinear way known as Kyon order. It almost makes no sense and so I suggest that you watch them in the Haruhi order which if you are looking at Kyon order number, it would be 2, 3, 5, 10, 13, 14, 4, 7, 6, 8, 1, 12, 11 and 9. What does piss me off though is that in 2009, they added a new season, but it is supposed to be mixed in with Season 1 that added additional footage and dialogue to the story. It means that I have to rewatch the whole show again with the second season and try to put them together.

The feel of the show is like a Nuevo, and it’s nice to have Kyon’s thoughts on the whole idea of Haruhi’s antics. I don’t think I would be able to stand this show without his calculated thoughts and it would go into Azumanga Daioh mode I think. I really do wish I could hear more about his background and about his little sister. Every once in a while, she just seems to pop up out of nowhere and doesn’t seem to be part of anything. She could just as easily been left out instead of having her in the show. There were also times when they lost me, talking a lot about logic and philosophies in the characters who are around Kyon. I can understand when It’s Yuki, maybe even Itsuki but when Mikuru starts talking logically about time travel and then suddenly goes into ‘That’s classified’ thing, it just gets annoying because it doesn’t seem like her character.

The animation is pretty good, though it’s pretty much the same as almost any other school life with the rather clean artwork though they have constant hair-los even in the dark. It’s this nice little shine that went all the way around there heads. It’s a bit annoying in that aspect. The background is pretty washed out and the people stand out really nicely against it being bright. There is a lot of fan service, especially with Mikuru and the strange outfits that Haruhi forces her into. I have to say, I would have thought Haruhi would look a bit more out of control looking then what she looks like.

The voices in the English actually are much better in my mind but that is just my opinion. I can understand them much better if I don’t have to read the sub titles and not only that, Wendee Lee is a great Haruhi! I love her out of control voice and right next to Crispin Freeman’s cool and collected voice, it sounds really well done. Much like yin and yang. I’m not really sold on Stephanie Sheh’s Mikuru. She seems a little too timid and high pitched. It’s also nice to hear that Johnny Yong Bosch as Itsuki with a cool and collected character instead of the hot headed thugs he seems to be known for.

After Watching Endless 8
After watching part of the endless 8, I feel that you can probably just skip most of it. It pretty much made me go insane and I can probably say Kyon’s internal monolog by heart now… Ya… not doing that again.

Well if you haven't already seen it, go watch it.

The story follows the very cynical but likeable Kyon, who has just started his first year of highschool. He quickly becomes interested in fellow classmate Haruhi Suzumiya (of the title), whose odd behaviour on the first day of term (her only interests are aliens, time-travellers and espers, so screw everyone else!) really sets her apart from the rest of the students. Personally, I wasn't impressed by Haruhi initially, but was compelled by Kyon's witty narration and gorgeous visuals.

A few episodes in and the ball is rolling. Bored of all the other after school clubs, Haruhi creates her own, dubbed 'The SOS Brigade', with the sole purpose of keeping her amused, and gathers our main cast: the ever-tired Kyon, the ever-quiet Yuki Nagato and the ever-useless Mikuru Asahina. Later the group is joined by the ever-resigned Itsuki Koizumi.

Almost straight away comes the big revelation (and this is in no way a spoiler, since you probably already know this): Haruhi is a god, but doesn't know it. Everything (or atleast most things) she wishes for actually comes to life, which is how our cast came in to existence: Nagato is the alien, Asahina is the time-traveller and Koizumi is the esper. However, believing herself to be a normal girl, Haruhi's capacity for reasoning prevents her from truly believing in these exceptional truths, leaving her blind to her own creation. This really is a mindblowing concept that is constantly playing with my mind even when my opinion of the show dips and I move on to other things.

The rest of the cast has to prevent Haruhi from ever finding out her true identity and keep her occupied or reality will become increasingly distorted and the world as we know it could end! Cue some wonderful animation, some touching moments and a great deal of fun!

Season 2 (big surprise) is where this show loses some major points. Instead of furthering the story presented in the first series (which I never felt reached its full potential), we have a set of 'inbetween' episodes, which slot in before and after episodes of series 1. By itself, this is the Deleted Scenes of Haruhi Suzumiya. When I wanted to see some character development, I got more of the same characters. When I wanted to see the further consiquences of Haruhi's abilities, I was denied this. I was constantly asking how much more of the world is influenced by Haruhi? But there just aren't enough answers to satisfy.

One of my favourite episodes of the first series (and perhaps of any other show) is 'The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00', where we see the results of a crude but cute attempt from Haruhi at directing an independent film for an upcoming school festival. It was actually the first episode I saw (it came before episode 1 in the DVD boxset), and I fell in love with the show instantly. Taking every tired trope from all the best and worst anime movies, Haruhi forces her poor clubmates to into participating in the filming and acting of an awful and shameful crapfest, the results of which are absolutely hilarious. But the second series almost, ALMOST crushes that magic by presenting us with 5 episodes of what went on 'behind the scenes'. 5 episodes of totally unnecessary material, which could have been spent making the second series better.

And as for the Endless 8 arc, any complaint or criticism has already been done to death by better reviewers, so I really won't be adding anything by saying that Kyoto Animation SHOULD HAVE SPENT THE MONEY ON SOMETHING MORE CREATIVE INSTEAD OF PUTTING OUT SOMETHING SO IRRITATING ONLY A HIPSTER COULD ENJOY AND CALL EDGY. BETTER SHOWS COULD BENEFIT FROM THE BUDGET YOU'VE WASTED ON THESE EPISODES.

The animation is at best movie-quality and at its worst still leagues ahead of the anime of its time. The only reason it never quite hit perfection for me is that at the end of the day, a lot of the story tends to be confined to the dreary setting of the clubroom. But I can't fault the show too much, because if the animation was any better, the movie would have had a harder job to wow me with its looks (which it definately did).

I can't remember much about the music in the show, but the opening and closing tracks were pretty fun. Again, the movie really excelled in this department, but I can't be too generous here other than to say that compared to a lot of other shows you'll see, this more than likely features better music and SFX, and a better voice cast.

Besides my issues with the second series, the other problem I just can't get over is that, besides Kyon (and, to some degree, Nagato), no other character develops beyond the first few episodes. Most irritating of all is Mikuru, who is hopeless from start to finish, and even her future, more mature self manages to be only slightly less drippy. You see, there is more to making a character interesting than just throwing them at the viewer yelling "She's a time traveller!" or "He's an esper!". I KNOW Mikuru can travel through time, so it doesn't impress me or further her character by showing her doing this either. Ironically, the only worthwhile moment in the absolute disaster that was Endless 8, was learning this one depressing, disturbing and truly heartbreaking fact about the poor alien Nagato, which completely changed my perception of the character, and instantly gave her some depth. That was atleast one of the things the second series got right (IT JUST TOOK ITS TIME GETTING THERE!).

Kyon is easily my favourite characters, the hero of the show, reminding me of Tatsuhiro Satou from Welcome to the NHK before he turned a NEET and a hikikomori. His constant narration might start to irritate in series 2 (purely the fault of the material), but his constant disbelief in the behaviour of his clubmates is as funny as it is understandable. It is through him we view things, through him we feel our emotion. His guilt over Nagato's experience of the Endless 8 arc really hit me powerfully. At the most basic level, Kyon is the opposite of Haruhi: she wishes for things to be real but will never see the reality, whilst Kyon sees the reality but wishes for it not to be real.

Oh, and I'm not keen on Haruhi's personality or treatment of the other characters either: she's a mean spirited brat who just doesn't interest me. I always felt like this show could have been called The Exasperation of Kyon. I know the gang had no choice in the matter, but in reality you'd distance yourself away from this girl as soon as you saw her marching down the corridor, punching and kicking the poor souls who happen to get in her way.

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All in all, this series dips halfway through, and never quite recovers. You can easily skip the second season without losing any important storylines, quickly look over the storylines concerning Nagato just to shed a tear, then move right on to the film, which I will have to watch again very soon.

7/10 - Great

(To give it anything more would be to ignore the second series. If you choose to do so, at the very least you can call it an 8/10 - Excellent)

For a video review, check out my Youtube channel. Link on my profile page.

This is the first part off a 3 part review of the Haruhi Suzumiya franchise.

So before I dive into my positive points, I’m going to crush the hopes of the HS fans: I don’t get the hype that there is around this anime. I didn’t catch that hype train.

But let me first tell you the things that I liked about HS.

Positive

*First thing being the animation, animation coming from Kyoto Animation is always good. They never fail to please me with their crisp and sharp animation that we also see in other anime’s from Kyoto like Clannad of Hibike Euphonium.

And in HS we get that same nice animation. The crispness and sharpness in one particular scene caught my attention. That was the guitar scene from episode 12. Kyoto really knows how to animate instruments which they also showed this year in Hibike Euphonium. 

Not only the instruments were very well animated but I also found they way Haruhi sang very energetic and realistic.

*And like that I get seamlessly into my second point and that was that song from that episode: God Knows. I think it’s a very good song, even the best one of the entire anime.

*But the biggest positive point of this anime to me was Nagato Yuki. What a good female character was she. She was the most interesting, layered and intriguing character of the entire anime and she did save this anime for me. She was the biggest reason that I didn’t actually drop this. I thought she was an amazing character and one of the best female characters that I saw this year.

Negative

But now I’m going to tell you what I didn’t like about HS so Haruhi fans brace yourself.

*Starting off with the story: there was no consistency in the story. A lot of episodes stand on their own and I was constantly searching for a covering main storyline. The smaller story lines, like the murder case on the island, that took up like 4 episodes weren’t really that interesting. 

I had a very tough time forcing myself to watch HS. It took me longer that I had planned to finish this anime because some evenings I really didn’t want to watch because I was quite bored.

*And not only the story bothered me but also the ending did. This anime feels incomplete to me, I had so many questions after I finished it. What is Haruhi: is she some kind of god of is she just plain crazy? What’s the deal with Koizumi, I really don’t understand his character? Are there feelings between Kyon and Haruhi? Are there feelings between Kyon and Nagato? All questions that I never got an answer to. Even after watching the movie and the spin-off anime I still have the feeling that this anime is incomplete.

*But the thing that bothered me, and I think almost everyone that has seen HS, the most was the Endless 8. I see that you want to create this situation in which the characters are stuck in an infinite time loop. 

But do you really have to repeat the exact same episode 8 freaking times? We also get that if you do it like 3 or 4 times. When I got to like the 5th repeat I started to fast forward through the episodes because it was the exact same thing over and over again. It was so extremely boring.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion as I said at the beginning of this review, I don’t get the hype around this anime, I thought that it was quite boring, inconsistent and incomplete. If it wasn’t for Nagato I probably wouldn’t even have finished it. 

So I’m going to rate The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya at 3 stars and they can thank Nagato for that. So if there are fans of this anime watching this video, please let me know in the comments why this anime is so hyped because I really want to know it. Also why do a lot of male viewers love Haruhi? Another thing that I don’t get.

=> PART 2: THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA

NOTE: I AM REVIEWING THIS AS A SERIES TWO OF THE ORIGINAL HARUHI SUZUMIYA ANIME. I WILL DO A SEPARATE REVIEW FOR THE ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE HARUHI ANIME :D

 Story:  I was badly dissappointed with this part of this series of Haruhi Suzumiya. Firstly, there was the original 13 episodes of Haruhi Suzumiya from the previous season, with just a few extra tweaks added in. I won't pretend I watched all of these episodes- I didn't. But the ones I did watch were the same as I'd already seen in the prior season and I saw little point sandwiching them into a second season seemingly just to make it look longer. There was nothing backbreakingly new in this first half of the series, and I found it boring.

Then there was the Endless Eight arc, which was unbelievably tiresome and I found very dull to watch. I could manage about four or five endless repetitive episodes, but EIGHT?! I'm only human, and I'm not enough of a hardcore Suzumiya fan to enjoy watching this.

Then there was about five or six episodes what wrapped up the show, in which the SOS Brigade decided to make a play, and it showed the process of Haruhi producing it. This was alright for about two episodes, then it became clear this part was going to go for some time, and there weren't exactly many interesting developments in it. You simply watched Mikuru quiver in her bunny suit as she shot rays out of her eyes and Nagato wadered around with a little witches hat on. The last ten or so minutes of this episode improved as Itsuki talked to Kyon about something very cute and sweet, but the certain love confession mentioned didn't even get shown, so this completely ruined it for me. Overall, I felt nothing new or compelling was in this series of Haruhi Suzumiya.

Animation: I can't deny this anime has amazing animation, particularly with facial expressions and characters in general. It was all very pretty, especially backgrounds, and nothing ever turned sloppy or unappealing looking. 

Sound: Other than the opening and ending songs I can't remember much sound, except that it worked well. No complaints with this sector of the anime.

Characters: I really do like the characters in Haruhi Suzumiya- they are clearly unique and all are so juxtaposed its very impressive. However since half of the episodes in this series were either repeats or part of an endless cycle of eight, characters didn't really step out of that protective circle we are used to, instead they totally stayed in their comfort zones and nothing back-breakingly new about them was revealed.

Overall: From a perspective of this as a season two, I was very let down, but if you haven't watched the first season of Haruhi, then this would most likely be precieved as amazing. I'd personally recommend just watching this series and let the other one lie still and left alone.